Third Party Providers ask the CRTC to end the "discrimination" against them from the big name carriers

Small Internet service provides like TekSavvy want the CRTC to stop large carriers like Bell and Rogers from pushing them around.

In a filing to the federal regulator, the Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC), which represents third-party Internet providers like TekSavvy, accused network operators like Bell and Rogers of “discriminating” against them.

Third party providers “are being treated in an unduly discriminatory manner by the Carriers relative to the manner that the Carriers treat their own retail operations,” the documents read.

The allegations arose from complaints publicized in the media that third party customers were experiencing long down-times and shoddy service.

In August, the CBC reported that TekSavvy customers had been affected by outages of 10-15 days.

“At this point our systems on our side, everything is functional, and we’re working with our network operator to get to the bottom of it,” TekSavvy CEO Marc Gaugralt said.

The CBC reported that a group of roommates having problems connecting to the Internet called Rogers to fix their service with TekSavvy, but the telecom giant offered to match TekSavvy’s plan and offered to get it up and running within 24 hours.

This is the type of behaviour CNOC objects to. Their appeal to the CRTC says the main carriers have failed to “deliver minimum service standards in many areas over prolonged periods of time,” whether it be the length of time a user’s Internet has been down, service that regularly cuts out, sluggish service during peak hours or technicians failing to show up for repairs.

“There are some serious issues that need to be discussed,” said Bill Sandiford of CNOC.

The complaint cites a section of the Telecommunications act, which says:

“No Canadian carrier shall, in relation to the provision of a telecommunications service or the charging of a rate for it, unjustly discriminate or give an undue or unreasonable preference toward any person, including itself, or subject any person to an undue or unreasonable disadvantage”

At this point, CNOC is confident that the CTRC will rule in their favour, but it’s much too early to consider any further action, Sandiford said.

The providers were granted a 30 day extension to draft an appropriate response to the 18 direct recommendations made by CNOC.

This isn’t the first time small ISPs have claimed larger companies are taking advantage of them. In November 2010, Bell won approval to put usage based billing caps on wholesale providers. Many smaller ISPs said the move could put them out of business. The CRTC settled the matter by ordering Bell to give wholesalers a 15 per cent discount on the price of the data caps.